Hi everyone! I was hoping someone could help me identify a bird by its sound. At first I thought it was an owl, as the sound tends to come late at night or early in the morning (before or around 4-5 o'clock A.M). But I live in eastern North Carolina (Greenville) and looked up all the common species of owls here (Great Horned, Barred, Barn, and Screech) and couldn't find a sound to match, so I'm wondering if it is a different type of bird.
The sound was very distinctly three notes, quite low, and sounded like a slow, slow whoop. It almost sounded like a sigh at the end. So: Whoooop, whooop, sigh (with a downward pitch for the last note). I was pretty sure it was a barred owl, but every time I hear a recording of a barred owl, it has more than three repetitive notes, and isn't quite as low-pitched as the sound I heard.
I am extremely interested to know what type of bird this is, as I have a special interest in owls and would love to see if it is an uncommon species for my area.
Thank you so much!
Hi ricctp. Nice to hear from you.
You might be pushing it uphill to get an identification from this Australian forum as the owls you listed are a long way from us. Are there any US forums of a similar bent which could help you? But as a general comment I wonder if you're hearing another species of nocturnal bird.
Ah, thank you. Yeah I've been looking around, but the types of birdwatchers here don't seem to use the internet ;) But, I'm thinking it must be too. It's obviously not a dove: I grew up with those and know exactly how they sound. It sounded like a big bird which I know doesn't mean much, but it was a throaty sound. I'l keep looking around.
Oops! I forgot you mentioned the Barn Owl. If it's the same as the Barn Owl found in Australia, & I presume it is since it's widely spread across Earth, then it's call is a screech. So the call you're hearing is made by something else!
How about this forum?
http://www.birdforum.net/forum.php
It is theoretically global, but it seems most of its membership is UK based. Despite this, there seems to be a few recent IDs from the US, so it's worth a try. Pennsylvania, Florida, Texas, Minnesota (x2), Arizona and Tennessee have all cropped up over the past day. Unfortunately, their A+NZ section is pretty dead...
This forum http://whatbird.com/ is excellent.
I did a trip to the States in Oct '11 and the members were extremely helpful.
Peter
I have a little bit of experience with Barred Owls, and while you're right that they often do a longer sequence, I have also heard what I believe you're describing and the length of the sequence can vary. Knowing that Barred owls are quite common, I would say that they'd be the most likely for what you're describing.
Barn and screech owls are different, although barn owls do make a screeching sound.
Birding Blog: Close Encounters of the Bird Kind
Might be worthwhile asking on birdforum.com which is a worldwide forum for birders. There are plenty of people from the US that may be able to help you.
Brandon (aka ihewman)